Will this M.2 SSD work with this motherboard?

Forums › Desktop computing › Will this M.2 SSD work with this motherboard?

timmmay

20580 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#306181 3-Jul-2023 12:04

I purchased the ADATA SU650 512GB M.2 Internal SSD for my Raspberry Pi, to work with a Argon One M.2 SSD case.

What I'm wondering is if it will work in my Gigabyte B550 AORUS PRO AX motherboard in the second M.2 slot. I figure I'll put it in there and run some tests, make sure it's working properly, as I don't know how to run that kind of check on Linux. I have software that will write to the whole disk, then read it back, to check it's working reliably. I don't mind that it will put a small amount of wear on the SSD to run the test.

The SSD is "M. 2 2280 SATA III M+B Keys"

The motherboard supports "1 x M.2 connector (M2B_SB), integrated in the Chipset, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SSDs".

My reading suggests that the SSD supports both M and B keys, and the motherboard supports M keys, both support 2280, so it should work. Is that correct? I don't want to try to fit it and break the motherboard or the SSD.

bagheera

539 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3099026 3-Jul-2023 13:09

with m2 drives, there are 2 things you need, the key type - ie m or b or m/b and then there are 2 type, either NVMe or SATA, look ing at the drive, it the SATA version, so your mother needs to support SATA m.2 drives, looking at the spec it say

1 x M.2 connector (M2A_CPU), integrated in the CPU, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SSDs:
- 3rd Generation AMD Ryzen™ processors support SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSDs
- 3rd Generation AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Graphics processors support SATA and PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 SSDs
1 x M.2 connector (M2B_SB), integrated in the Chipset, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SSDs:

I think the M.2 connector (M2A_CPU) is the NVMe type, and 1 x M.2 connector (M2B_SB) is the SATA type, so your motherboard can have 1 NVMe and 1 SATA M.2 type drives in it.

timmmay

20580 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3099031 3-Jul-2023 13:16

Nice, thanks bagheera. I already have an NVMe SSD in the A slot, so it sounds like this other slower SSD will be fine in the second slot. Thanks again 😀

fe31nz

1230 posts

Uber Geek

#3099388 3-Jul-2023 22:57

The photo clearly shows the SSD is B+M key, and it says it is SATA (not NVMe). The Pi case says it works with B key or B+M key and needs a SATA drive. So it is compatible.

This guide from Wikipedia shows the keying:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2#/media/File:M2_Edge_Connector_Keying.svg

timmmay

20580 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3099420 4-Jul-2023 07:25

fe31nz:

The photo clearly shows the SSD is B+M key, and it says it is SATA (not NVMe). The Pi case says it works with B key or B+M key and needs a SATA drive. So it is compatible.

This guide from Wikipedia shows the keying

Yeah, I know that. That's why I purchased it. That wasn't my question. bagheera understood my question and answered it above.

timmmay

20580 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3099725 4-Jul-2023 15:41

@bagheera I think we got it backwards.

The SSD arrived. I fitted the new SSD in the M2B_SB / second M.2 socket, turned it on, the computer made booting noises but nothing showed on the screen. I moved the graphics card from slot PCIEX4 to another slot because the manual says "The M2B_SB connector shares bandwidth with the PCIEX4 slot. The PCIEX4 slot will become unavailable when an SSD is installed in the M2B_SB connector". Now the computer boots.

Unfortunately, neither the BIOS or Windows shows the new SSD.

The motherboard manual says it supports:

1 x M.2 connector (M2A_CPU), integrated in the CPU, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SSDs: 3rd Generation AMD Ryzen™ processors support SATA and PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 SSDs
1 x M.2 connector (M2B_SB), integrated in the Chipset, supporting Socket 3, M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 SSDs: support PCIe 3.0 x4/x2 SSDs

I'm thinking that this means the M2A slot that my main SSD is in supports either SATA or PCIe drives, whereas the M2B slot supports only PCIe drives. A bit of reading suggests an M.2 drive can be SATA or PCIe, NVME runs over PCIe.

I think if I swapped the drives between the slots both would work, but I don't think I want to mess with it that much. I'll just wait until the new Raspberry Pi turns up, put the new SSD in that, and test it there.

bagheera

539 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3099727 4-Jul-2023 15:47

Yeah, M.2 are a mess to try and work out if they will work or not for your pc, wish they were like M.2 = Sata, M.3=NVMe would make it alot easier to work out - would also help if motherboard manual would not say 1 x M.2 connector (M2A_CPU) - how about M.2 NVMe only etc.

timmmay

20580 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3099733 4-Jul-2023 16:00

A little reading and things make a bit more sense. M.2 is the physical socket. The others are a mix of bus and protocol. If you don't look at the area regularly it's easy to forget or not understand exactly what each is.

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

timmmay

20580 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3099898 4-Jul-2023 19:48

@bagheera it occurred to me that I could use the Argon One case as a USB adapter for the drive for my PC, which worked 🙂 It's doing about 400MB/sec which is pretty good, I can test the SSD copying and verifying with Teracopy and testing with chkflsh memory card testing software.

bagheera

539 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3100068 5-Jul-2023 09:08

yeah, I have got myself one of these https://www.rubbermonkey.co.nz/Sabrent-USB-3-2-Type-C-Tool-Free-Enclosure-for-M-2-PCIe-NVMe-and-SATA-SSDs as it covers 99% of M.2 drives, also got a usb - c to usb-a cable to cover none c pc, works very well, only issue is my work mate keep boring it as they need to get info off a m.2 from a dead laptop / pc.